Frances Stein Slifman

Meyer: Mrs. Slifman, you told me that you were born in this country but your parents came from Russia. Do you remember when your parents came? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, my father came here before my mother, and that was in 1910. 

Meyer: And where did he come from? 
SLIFMAN: From Odessa. 

Meyer: And did your mother also come from Odessa? 
SLIFMAN: Yes. She came a year later because my brother was going to be born, and my grandmother wouldn’t allow her to come until after his birth. 

Meyer: How did your father happen to select Portland?
SLIFMAN: His mother and father and family had come here before him. They all settled in Portland, and he finally decided to come too. Then he sent for my mother, but she wouldn’t come until after the baby was born.

Meyer: How many years later were you born? 
SLIFMAN: Two years later. 

Meyer: What kind of business did your father do in Portland? 
SLIFMAN: First he was working with his father. They were selling fruit. They had a horse and wagon, and they were selling it in the neighborhood. 

Meyer: You said in the neighborhood. In other words, they went beyond South Portland? 
SLIFMAN: That I’m not sure of. But he was using this horse and wagon and selling fruits and vegetables in the neighborhood, let’s put it that way. Later he went into a grocery in South Portland on First and Carruthers. 

Meyer: And what was the name of the store? 
SLIFMAN: Just Stein’s Grocery Store, on First and Carruthers. 

Meyer: Did your mother work in the store with him? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, she helped my father, and my grandmother was here. She came just two weeks before I was born so that she could give my mother a hand with the rest of the children, and she lived with us for ten years. 

Meyer: Where was your house? Close to the store? 
SLIFMAN: I was born on Front and Arthur, and later we moved up to Third and Carruthers, between Carruthers and Sheridan on Third. We had the grocery store on First, and later we moved into a house next to the grocery store. 

Meyer: And your family lived there for many years? 
SLIFMAN: No, not too many years. Afterwards, we sold the store. I believe it was turned into a fish market. Mrs. Levine took over the fish market, and we bought a grocery store on Fourth and Market. 

Meyer: You move downtown? 
SLIFMAN: A big rooming house that was connected to this grocery store, and we lived in the rooms there. Later we bought our home up on Sixth and Jackson, where my folks lived for 41 years. Of course, then when I was married, we moved out of the house. We lived with my folks for about nine months, and then we moved out by ourselves and had our first-born. We lived on Third and Grant. 

Meyer: Let’s go back to the grocery store you talked about on Fourth and Market. Your parents had that for many years? 
SLIFMAN: No, not too many. I was about ten years old when my folks bought their home, and then they sold the grocery store on Fourth and Market and took another grocery store on Third between Lincoln and Grant. 

Meyer: That was always Stein’s Grocery Store? 
SLIFMAN: That was Stein’s Grocery Store, and after we were there for a while, then Korsun’s bought it from us. Then my dad went into another business, a second-hand store. Of course, before all these things came up, he went into a fruit stand downtown. I believe it was on Third and Yamhill. As a matter of fact, I think he was the first man that had a fruit stand in Portland downtown. 

Meyer: And was that also called Stein’s? 
SLIFMAN: They didn’t have any names on them really. They just had beautiful stores there. I have pictures that I can give you. 

Meyer: That would be nice. 
SLIFMAN: That would show you what the store looked like. It was an open store.

Meyer: An open market stall. 
SLIFMAN: It was very beautiful, well kept. 

Meyer: Did you help your parents in the store as you were growing up? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, we helped them in the store on Fourth and Market, and then we helped them again in the store on Third. 

Meyer: What do you remember most about the people who came in? Of course, I think working in a grocery store you had daily contact with different sorts of people. 
SLIFMAN: Yes, a lot of people came in. As a matter of fact, I remember my husband came by once and sold some vegetables to my father, and I really didn’t know him then. Then I met him about a year later at a Halloween party There was a bunch of girls and boys; we were all single and we met there. Then my husband went out of town for about a year. 

Meyer: Mrs. Slifman, working in the store as a child you probably got to know the people in your neighborhood especially well. Do you remember some of the people who came in? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, so many people. There was a family called Bader, and they came in there very often. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Bader was the woman in the house when I was born, and she was a very, very dear friend of ours until she passed away. She had a lovely family. She used to come into the store and buy her groceries. Then down the street we had — they happened to be cousins of my husband, and their name was Mesher. Mr. and Mrs. Sam Mesher and their family lived across the street, and they used to come into the store all the time. Let me see. Then the Bernsteins used to come in, and Goldstones. And then my aunt and uncle lived up the street, and they used to come into the store. There were just so many, many people. 

Meyer: I’m sure. This store was between Lincoln and Grant? 
SLIFMAN: Yes. 

Meyer: Were there other stores next to it? 
SLIFMAN: Not grocery stores, no. Up on Fourth Avenue there was another grocery store, and across the street from the grocery store was Tom Stern’s garage, and they used to come into our store also. On Fourth Avenue between Lincoln and College, Rabbi Fain lived there with his family, and on Third and College was the Old People’s Home. That was the original one as far as I know. My husband’s grandfather was there, Mr. Mesher, for many years, until he passed away. He passed away in the Home. We loved him very much. My husband used to go and visit him every Sunday, take the children, and he loved that very much. 

Meyer: Tell me some other things about the people in your neighborhood? Are there some other descriptions of the neighborhood you’d like to remember? 
SLIFMAN: Yes. When my mother and father bought their home on Sixth and Jackson, there were a lot of Jewish people living in the neighborhood. I noticed when I came up there that there were a lot of children playing on the street. They were all playing hopscotch, and I got out onto the street with the children. Of course, they’re all married now. Some of them have passed on, and some of them are still around. We always had a lot of fun. All the children were very, very nice. 

There was a big flat across the street from my mother’s house that was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Shatz, and a lot of the Jewish families lived there. There were the Alberts and their daughters — one daughter is Mildred Sax, and one daughter who is already deceased, her name was Lena, and the third sister was Ida. Mr. and Mrs. Harry Shatz — they are now both deceased — had three lovely sons. One son is a doctor who lives in Fresno, and then they had another son, Bernard. I believe he’s living in Seattle. And then there is Howard Shatz, the dentist who lives here in town. He married one of the Popick girls, and they used to live in the flat, and we were all friends. The Popicks had a sister, Sophie, that I used to be very friendly with, and they have a brother Irving, and the other brother is Hymie Popick. I don’t remember whether he is still alive or deceased. I hate to let you know these things because I’m not positive. 

Meyer: Tell me about which school you went to. 
SLIFMAN: I started going to Failing School, and I went there until we moved to Fourth and Market, and then we went to Ladd School. Ladd School is not in existence anymore. They turned it into the art museum, and that is over . . . 

Meyer: Across from the Neighborhood House? 
SLIFMAN: No, this is across from the Park Blocks. 

Meyer: I know where you mean, up on Park. 
SLIFMAN: On Park and Jefferson. And then we started going to Shattuck School, which is not Shattuck School anymore. I believe it is part of the . . .

Meyer: Community College? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, I believe it is. I went there until the eighth grade, and then I decided I would like to graduate at Failing School, so I used to walk to Failing School from Sixth and Jackson. And I did graduate from Failing School. That was what I wanted to do. 

Meyer: And then did you go on to high school? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, I went to Commerce High School. I didn’t go through high school; I went to work. I decided I wanted to go to work. Then I went to night school and took up some courses. 

Meyer: Where did you go to work? 
SLIFMAN: I worked at Meier & Frank, and then afterwards I worked at Kress’s, and Newberry’s, and then I worked at — at that time we had what was called International Dollar Stores. And I worked at Lipman’s.

Meyer: As a salesgirl? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, and in the stock room. Then, of course, when I got married to my husband, I worked for just a short while and became a housewife. 

Meyer: While you were growing up, Mrs. Slifman, did you attend the classes at Neighborhood House? 
SLIFMAN: Do you mean for school? 

Meyer: Not school, but did you go there? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, I used to go to gym and used their facilities, and we used to have different organizations there. 

Meyer: Which organizations were you active in?
SLIFMAN: The men had a club called the [Hakoa?] Club, and I used to belong to — it was a bunch of girls, and we used to get together with the boys and have parties. Then later when we were married, my husband and I belonged to the South Parkway Club, and I was a Sisterhood member. Whenever I belonged anywhere, I liked to be either on the board or such. After I got married and I was near Failing School, they needed a parent-teacher organization. We organized that, and then I became one of their first vice presidents. Our president, her father took sick, and they asked me if I would become PTA President. 

Meyer: Do you remember special events at the Neighborhood House as you were growing up? 
SLIFMAN: Yes. My husband and I used to love to dance, and I think most people know that we love to dance today because wherever we go they always say that we always dance well. People have stopped us on the dance floor and asked us if we had taken lessons, which we never have. We just picked it up by ourselves, and we’ve always loved to dance. As a matter of fact, when I first met my husband at this party that I was telling you about, he was supposed to have been my daughter-in-law’s [mother’s] boyfriend for that night. Well, she saw another man there that she liked better, who she is married to today, so we are what you would call machatunim [in-laws], which you understand means that my son is married to their daughter, so naturally they are a part of our family. At that time my husband was such a good dancer, so I danced with him that night at this Halloween party. We were doing what they called the figure eight, and we were having a grand time. And as I told you before, he went away for a year and came back, and then we started going together. 

Meyer: Were there monthly dances at Neighborhood House? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, we used to go the dance — I believe it was about once a month. They were put on by the South Parkway Club; they had wonderful affairs. Of course, we’d start dancing the first dance and never finished until the last dance. We used to exchange dances with the different friends, and that’s the way people made friends. 

Meyer: Your friendships centered around your neighborhood and around Neighborhood House? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, quite a bit. When my oldest son was old enough to go to  nursery school — they used to have a nursery school up at the Neighborhood House — he was two years old, so we used to take him to the nursery school. When I say we, I’m talking about my sister-in-law who had a daughter who would go to the Neighborhood House with us. We would take gym, and the children would go to the nursery. Of course, we used to have a Mothers Club once a month, and the children used to perform. My son used to like to be the little leader of the little group that they had. There was a real cute incident that happened there when they had their little parties. There was a woman there by the name of Mrs. Kahn. When the children were through with their little performances, they’d come in to their mothers and they’d offer cake and cookies and things. My son had already had his cookie, so when she offered him a cookie she was very thrilled because he said, “I already had one.” He wouldn’t take any more. 

Meyer: Was your family associated with one of the synagogues? 
SLIFMAN: Yes. My mother and father belonged to Neveh Zedek, which was in South Portland. 

Meyer: What street was that on? 
SLIFMAN: The very first one that they belonged to they used to call the [Kazaschki Shul?], and that was down around the corner from the Failing School. It was down on Arthur. I think it was on [Front?] and Arthur. They used to have a lot of affairs going on. There were dinners and dances. In those days, families would bring their children along, and they’d have live music playing. They’d have a violin and a clarinet and a piano, and these were all played by Jewish people. I remember our grandmother, my father’s mother, used to take all her little grandchildren that were there, and they’d make their circle and they’d all dance together. We had a ball. They’d have dinners and celebrations for the different holidays. 

Then the synagogue was moved up to First and Carruthers. At that time, it used to be the Manley Center. It was there originally. Then they bought out the Manley Center and they had the synagogue there. My father-in-law, Mr. Hillel Slifman, was the cantor there, and my father used to help him during the holidays a little bit. They had choirs there. There were a lot of Jewish people in the neighborhood who were related that would go there. It seems that most people went to the synagogue in their neighborhood. Of course, there was Shaarie Torah, which was further down. It was down on First and — between College. Our grandparents used to go to Shaarie Torah. I remember the women would all sit upstairs, and the men would sit downstairs, and during the holidays the children would go and visit the different grandmas and all. There was this Mr. Lipman who used to make sure that the children were very quiet during the service. But oh, there were so many people in the neighborhood. 

Meyer: But your family was very active in Neveh Zedek. 
SLIFMAN: Yes. 

Meyer: Do you remember any special events at Neveh Zedek that stand out in your mind? 
SLIFMAN: Like weddings and things? 

Meyer: Yes. 
SLIFMAN: They had weddings there. They had bar mitzvahs there. 

Meyer: Were the women separated at Neveh Zedek? Did the women sit upstairs too? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, they did. But of course, Shaarie Torah was the original Orthodox synagogue. Of course, we used to go to the Meade Street shul too. I don’t know the name of that one right now [transcriber’s note: Kesser Israel].

Meyer: It slips my mind now, but I know which one. 
SLIFMAN: My father-in-law was the cantor over there also, and more than one cousin was married in Shaarie Torah. I remember this one cousin that was married there, I was her maid of honor, and another cousin of mine who was married in Shaarie Torah, I was one of the bridesmaids. 

Meyer: You had a very large family living in your general neighborhood.
SLIFMAN: Yes, we did. 

Meyer: Most of your life seems to have centered around things within your neighborhood. 
SLIFMAN: Right. 

Meyer: When you went to work before you were married, did you walk there or did you take the bus? How did you get there? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, being as we lived on Sixth and Jackson, it was so easy to walk to town. It really was so much better walking, and I loved to walk. 

Meyer: And all of your friends walked too? 
SLIFMAN: Yes. 

Meyer: If you wanted to get someplace, that was the way. 
SLIFMAN: Yes. And I had a lot of cousins that lived around in the neighborhood too. My dad had a little truck. I don’t know whether that would be interesting to you or not, but I think you’d like to hear about it. We used to go to the different parks, like to the Oaks and to Sellwood Park, and we’d get into the truck and sit in the back seat and sing songs, and we’d just have a ball. People would love to go to the Oaks Park because there were all these tables. Picnics were going on, from the different organizations too, and everybody would get together and just have a wonderful time. 

Meyer: Was this a yearly kind of thing, or just . . .? 
SLIFMAN: During the summer. 

Meyer: All the organizations would have special affairs? Do you remember any special sports events or things like that at the Neighborhood House? 
SLIFMAN: Yes. I used to love to go to gym there, and swimming. My oldest son, I think, learned to swim in the swimming pool there. 

Meyer: You seem to have very happy memories of South Portland. This was the happy time of your life. 
SLIFMAN: Yes, it was the most wonderful place to live in, really it was. On First and Carruthers — not only on First and Carruthers, but all the way as far down as far as College and all the way up as far as Gibbs, there were stores — grocery stores, butcher shops, bakeries —  even a pool house — mattress places, shoe stores, shoemakers, candy stores. My aunt had a restaurant. It was Goldie’s Restaurant. There were drugstores. As a matter of fact, there were a few people who have really gone up in this world, like Minnie Berg who is now called Mona [Palley?]. She became quite a singer in the neighborhood. Mel Blank, I’m sure everybody knows him, the voice of Mel Blank. He lived down the street from our grocery store, and he used to come in the grocery store all the time. My mother used to give him a piece of bread and jelly. And he used to play with my brothers. There was a Cottel’s Drugstore that was on the corner, and behind the drugstore were little apartments in the back, and that’s where he lived. And up above Cottel’s Drugstore there were different doctors and dentists. And of course, there were the barber shops. Oh, there was just everything right there.

Meyer: From your description, you seem to have the feeling that your whole world was right at your fingertips in South Portland, everything you wanted. 
SLIFMAN: Yes, it took us a long time to really decide on moving out of South Portland over to the East Side. 

Meyer: Tell me when you got married. 
SLIFMAN: We were married in 1933. 

Meyer: Right at the Depression time. 
SLIFMAN: Yes. We had a beautiful wedding. First we had a lovely engagement party that my mother gave at home. We were engaged about a day before my birthday, which is March 8th, and we were married five months later. We were married in a hall out on the East Side; it was called Wymer’s Hall. It was a beautiful affair. We went to Seaside on our honeymoon for five days and came back, and we were going to move in with my mother-in-law and father-in-law, but my sister-in-law and husband decided to stay here after the wedding, so we moved in with my mother and father and lived there until just a month before my oldest son was born. 

Meyer : And when was that, in 1934? 
SLIFMAN: He was born on December 24th, 1934. 

Meyer: Of course, you were a bride during the Depression. Do you remember any hard times or any specific things about the Depression that you’d like to share? 
SLIFMAN: Being that we were living so close to our parents, it wasn’t what you’d call a real hardship. I was always the type of person that could manage things pretty well, and we were always very happy, no matter whether we could do things or we weren’t able to do things. But we always did things together. We never fought about whether we had enough or not enough. We always managed to look nice, our table was always full, and my husband always tried very hard to keep us happy. 

Meyer: When you moved out of your parents’ home, where was your first home? 
SLIFMAN: My aunt and uncle owned a flat on Third and Grant, and we had a place to move in there. It was five rooms. It was very, very nice, and I think I was a pretty good little housekeeper. My aunt used to love to come down because she was very thrilled with the way I kept house. Of course, we brought our little boy home from the hospital there. Then from there we moved to another place on Fifth between Sherman and Grant. We lived there for about five months, and then we moved in with my mother-in-law and father-in-law because my husband was going to go out of town. So we stayed there for a while, and then from there we moved to . . .

Meyer: You continued to live in South Portland, and all of your children were born there? 
SLIFMAN: No. Two of my children were born in South Portland, and my youngest son was born in our home about a year after we moved in there. My oldest son started going to school at Failing School, and during the time that he was going to school I was the Parent-Teachers president. My daughter was only about two months old, and I tell you, that was something. It was hard to get people to work with you on your committees, so my husband helped me quite a bit. I used to have to make out the write-up for the paper, and he used to take it down for me. And I used to go to the different meetings, so I had to get my babysitters, which was quite hard. But it was a lot of fun. I had gone to Failing School too. Some of the teachers were still there. It was really a lot of fun knowing that the teachers were there and they were sitting in the audience with all the mothers and fathers of the different children. Of course, it made me feel pretty good, sitting up there as president. 

Meyer: It was a lot of work for you then? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, it was. We had a lot of fun. We used to have different things going on for the school to make money, and we did do very well at that time. People would come to the little affairs that we made to make more funds for the school. 

Meyer: Had the neighborhood changed by then, or . . .? 
SLIFMAN: Well, it was during the war. Of course, at that time my husband was working in the shipyards. One time he worked swing shift, the next time he worked graveyard shift, but it was alright because I kept pretty busy. During that time the USO used to come over in the Neighborhood House, so there were a lot of boys who used to come over there. I used to bake cookies for them and come in and sit with them sometimes, and the boys used to love that because it made them feel that they were wanted. 

Meyer: Were they all Jewish?
SLIFMAN: No, just for USO. The different people in the neighborhood would come over, and they’d bring cookies and cakes and sit with the boys and talk with them and make them feel good. 

Meyer: When did you and your husband decide to move from South Portland? 
SLIFMAN: We were living in this little house across the street from the Lair Hill Park, and the house was going up for sale. We were approached first to buy the house, but the only reason [we didn’t buy it] was that I didn’t like the basement. It was a dirt basement, and it always frightened me to go down there. So then we started looking around for a house, and then when this house did come up, we went over to look at it, and we bought it. 

Meyer: Where was that? 
SLIFMAN: It was out on 28th between Siskiyou and Klickitat, right by the Alameda School. 

Meyer: Did you have friends and family living in that general neighborhood? 
SLIFMAN: My husband had a cousin who lived up the street from us. Her name is Marian Meyers. And then there were some people who lived across the street from us, Gene and Hattie Nudelman and their family, and up the street from us were some more people. As a matter of fact, they were relatives of my husband, Helen and Mark Mesher. There were quite a few Jewish people in the neighborhood. But of course, we didn’t realize that when we were first moving. We thought we weren’t going to be around people that we knew, but one of my sister-in-laws told me that there was a cousin who lived up the street from us, and that’s the reason why we didn’t feel so bad. 

Meyer : And your children went to school there? 
SLIFMAN: They went to Alameda School, both my sons and my daughter, and then we moved to California. We were for ten years, but then we decided to come back home because my parents were still here and my husband’s family was here also. And we’ve been here since. 

Meyer : At the time that you decided to move from South Portland, did you feel that the neighborhood had really changed a lot? 
SLIFMAN: No, at that time the neighborhood hadn’t changed too much. It didn’t make a change for many years, until they started working on the freeways and such. But it was a beautiful neighborhood. 

Meyer: Let’s switch a little bit to the Jewish Community today. South Portland is no longer; it’s the urban renewal. 
SLIFMAN: It’s not what it was. 

Meyer: How do you feel about the urban renewal? 
SLIFMAN: If it was going to make it any better for people to live in, it’s all right, but . . . 

Meyer : The urban renewal actually started while you were gone? 
SLIFMAN: Yes, and I really never kept up with that. 

Meyer: But how did you feel when you came back and you saw what had happened to the neighborhood? 
SLIFMAN: It really broke my heart a little bit to know that all these places were there so long ago and they had to come down. Of course, if it’s going to better the city by cleaning up all the old things — I don’t know how they were infested or anything of that sort. I don’t know too much about it because I really never came in contact with anything like that. I didn’t have to worry about that. But if there was anything like that and it did clean it up, I’m really happy for them. 

Meyer: How do you feel about the changes in the Jewish community, looking at it today? 
SLIFMAN: It has made a big change because there are not that many people living down there in that neighborhood anymore. It seems like they’ve all moved to the East Side, the West Side, up in through the hills, into Aloha, Beaverton, and Raleigh Hills and all those parts, so they really aren’t right in the midst of it all. There are very, very few older people left in this South Portland neighborhood that could do them any harm anymore because most of them are deceased, and their children have moved away. And they moved away many years before that. 

Meyer: How do you feel about the Jewish Community Center having moved out into the Southwest area? 
SLIFMAN: It’s a very lovely place there. For some people, I think it’s very wonderful because a lot of people have moved out that way, and of course, the building is lovely. I haven’t been up there that much because I live too far away from there, but I do enjoy it whenever I do go up there and they have anything there. It’s very nice. Considering that the other building was getting old, this one is quite a change, and they have done a little bit more there now than they had in the past. But I do understand that the Neighborhood House is being used again for different . . .

Meyer: Yes, as a matter of fact, even tonight there’s going to be something special . . .
SLIFMAN: Yes, I heard about that. 

Meyer : At the Neighborhood House. Most of the people who grew up with you in South Portland, do they still live in the Southwest area, do you think? 
SLIFMAN: There are quite a few who live out there, and a lot of them living in the Southeast section. There are not as many living out in the Northeast section as were living there before. Most of those moved out to the Southwest. 

Meyer: The people, as the neighborhood closed up . . . 

Meyer: Mrs. Slifman, as you look back today, how do you feel as a Jew living in Oregon in 1976? 
SLIFMAN: I don’t feel any different today than I did then. As a matter of fact, I can always keep my head up as a Jew. No one would ever come and cross me and call me a “dirty Jew” or anything like that and let it go at that because I am very proud of being a Jew. 

Meyer: Do you feel any particular changes in the climate of life? 
SLIFMAN: I wouldn’t want to change it. I was born a Jew and I’d always want to be a Jew, and my children feel the same way. 

Meyer: You had mentioned to me before that you are very happy having grown up in Portland. 
SLIFMAN: Yes. It was a happy city, and the people around weren’t — they never had to point a finger at you in any way, and you never felt belittled by anyone in your own community because everybody was equal. 

Meyer : That was the joy of living in that old neighborhood. 
SLIFMAN: Yes, it was just wonderful. As a matter of fact, every time I would see — whether it was a young person or an old person, I’m the kind of person that would always say hello to them; I would never turn my nose up at anyone. And people always remember me, that I always have been that way, and I wouldn’t want to change my way at all.